A talk I gave at European Testing Conference 2017

1. Why And How Testers
Should Act Like Marketeers
@rosiesherry
By Rosie Sherry

2. Testers be like this!

3. And then I felt
like this again.

4. 1.
marketing
ˈmɑːkɪtɪŋ/
Noun
2. the action or business
of promoting and
selling products or
services, including
market research and
advertising.

5. Seth Godin’s Marketing in Four Steps
(butchered by Rosie)
1. Have an idea
2. Make something
3. Get excited and share your story.
4. Do the work. It will probably take a long time.
5. Then evolve it, or move on.
Not all ideas turn out to be good ideas.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2016/08/marketing-in-four-steps.html

6. “Marketing is
everything.”
Regis McKenna

7. If marketing is
everything, then
does everything
you do tell a story
of who we are?
(Truth: https://www.instagram.com/p/BPHnX9IBLEw/)

8. Our.
Stories.
Are.
Ours.
To.
Tell.

9. No.
One.
Cares.
About.
Testing.
Like.
Us.

10. And.
We’re.
Not.
Telling.
Them.
(Effectively).

11. Our.
Responses.
Are.
Defensive.
We.
React.
To.
The.
Hype.

12. Our.
Stories.
Could.
Be.
The.
Pathway.
To.
Growth.

13. How.
Should.
We.
Be.
Sharing.
Our.
Stories?

14. First!
Look.
And.
Take.
Inspiration.
From.
Your.
Team.
Surroundings.

15. Support Your Team Understand Your Team Support Your Business Show Up
● Invite yourself to
meetings
● Start internal
events
● Find and share
helpful things
● Focusing on
moving forward
● Get excited
● Collaborate, try
pair testing (e.g)
● What excites
them?
● Where do they
hang out?
● How can you
make their life
easier?
● What
challenges do
they have?
● Be curious
about them
● Make testing
easier to
understand
● Innovate
● Create
processes of
value and with
meaning
● Get rid of waste
● Imagine you
were the CEO
● Ask questions
● Write
● Be a maker
● Fail
● Evolve
● Talk
● Attend
● Respond
● Be proud
● Give a damn
● Be helpful
Be Curious About Your Team

16. Second!
People.
Can.
Help.
Really!

17. Support The Community Infiltrate The Web Move forward Show Up
● Be a part of it.
● Consume
● Participate
● Be social
● Be human
● Share about what
you care
● Find people like your
team members, get
to know them!
Write! Talk! Record!
Think long term: Seed
good ideas and help
people about testing:
Quora, Reddit,
Hackernews,
Stackoverflow.
There is too much crap
about testing on the
web. The only
response is to overload
it with goodness.
Show you care.
Make friends.
Create your own
supportive circle.
Live in a world of
technology, not one of
testing.
Innovate.
● Ask questions
● Write
● Be a maker
● Fail
● Evolve
● Talk
● Attend
● Respond
● Be proud
● Give a damn
● Be helpful
Explore The World...
(The Testing Community, Industry, Tech World)

18. Third!
You.
First.
Everything.
Else.
Will.
Follow.

19. Where is your compass pointing? Problems Bias to action Show Up For Yourself
Really many of us don’t
know where we want to be,
but you can start heading in
the right direction.
Develop habits to help you
towards a place you’d like to
be.
It’s ok to change and evolve
your thinking.
There are some
things that just
can’t be changed.
Know your battles.
Some problems
hold us back. We
fail to see more
than one solution.
Do stuff!
What can you do
now?
Note down, or be
aware of the things
you enjoy.
Show you care.
Invest in yourself.
You are probably not
alone.
Connect with others.
Build a team around you.
Create life balance.
Do The Work - For Yourself

20. Fourth!
But.
I.
Have.
No.
Stories.
Bull shit.

22. Challenges
A different view
Frustration
Inspiration
Innovation
Experiences
Questions
Solutions
Be a copy cat
Stories can start with…
No idea is too small, Big ideas are usually stupid.
Interests

23. Fifth!
Make.
Something.
Then.
You.
Will.
Realise.
How.
Hard.
It. Is.

24. Wonderful piece of work by Elisabeth Hendrickson.
But it is 10 years old.
Make Something
Cheat Sheet

25. Make Something
Models - John Stevenson

26. Make Something
30 Days of Testing

27. Why I don’t want to be an automation engineer
https://thegrowingtester.wordpress.com/
Make Something
A Blog

28. Make Something
Collaborate (TestBash)

29. Make Something
Collaborate (TestSphere)

30. Whiteboard Testing
Make Something
WhiteBoard Testing

31. Make Something
Become entrepreneurial in testing

32. Sixth!
Think.
With.
Growth.
That.
Would.
Be.
Clever.

33. Do.
The.
Work.
Your.
Ideas.
Are.
Not.
Enough.

34. Get.
Excited.
To.
Share.
Your.
Story

35. Growing...
● Are things improving?
● Communicate, communicate….
● Share, share, share
● How do you feel about it all?
● Are you heading in the right direction?
● Continue? Evolve? Kill it.
● Get feedback
● Track stats
● Track mentions
● Keep in touch
● Collect email addresses
● Iterate
● Improve, continuously
● Good design changes how people feel
● Reach out, reach out…
● Search for like minded people
● Make friends…
● Be human...

36. I.
Challenge.
You.
To.
Infiltrate.
The.
Web.
With.
Goodness.

37. How, you ask?!
● Go searching for testing information
● What can you find that you like/dislike?
● What are they talking about?
● What are they not talking about?
● What should they be talking about?
● Identify some areas to contribute to
● Wikipedia
● Quora
● Stackoverflow
● Communities: Testing, Dev, Design,
Product Management, etc
● Social Media
● Hackernews

38. References
● Elisabeth Hendrickson cheat sheet:
http://testobsessed.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/testheuristicscheatsheetv1.pdf
● Model Fatigue and How To Break It - John Stevson -
https://dojo.ministryoftesting.com/lessons/model-fatigue-and-how-to-break-it-john-stevens
on
● 30 Days of Testing - https://dojo.ministryoftesting.com/series/30-days-of-testing
● TestSphere - https://dojo.ministryoftesting.com/series/testsphere
● WhiteBoard Testing - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0QZWhi0ojqNte3ey7RD0qQ
Thank you!
Rosie Sherry @rosiesherry
@ministryoftesting / www.ministryoftesting.com